An ongoing series of articles on songs & performances of the early Grateful Dead.

July 29, 2013

Studio Outtakes 1965-1974

Here is a list of the Grateful Dead’s studio outtakes up to 1974 that are available to us.
Our picture of the Dead in the studio is still very incomplete. We’re lacking anything like a Dead studio-sessions log, so a lot of these tapes are still mysterious or have no dates. They often circulated in haphazard collections with almost random labeling, and many entries are misdated or missing on deadlists. For an overview of the Dead’s studio activities, Blair Jackson’s book Grateful Dead Gear is the best source – it does not note outtakes, though.
This post also covers the ‘60s sessions: http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2010/09/live-vs-studio-dead-1967-69.html
The Deadhead’s Taping Compendium reviews many (but not all) of these tapes, and is noted when it does. Miscellaneous tapes that aren’t Dead studio outtakes are covered at the end.

Can't Come Down
Mindbender
The Only Time Is Now
Caution
I Know You Rider
Early Morning Rain

(All released on “Birth of the Dead” CD.)

See the Taping Compendium p.82-83.

*

1965? Unknown Location“Speed Limit” http://archive.org/details/gd1965-11-01.sbd.bershaw.5417.sbeok.shnfThe Dead may be the anonymous band playing the generic surf instrumental behind the Prankster chatter. The recording is repeated a few times and can be heard most clearly without the Prankster overdubs in the last few minutes. It's not too dissimilar from other things the early Dead did, like Heads Up on 3/19/66 or the instrumental on 3/25/66. Then again, it could be a random, unidentified surf-band record. Recording date unknown.A bit of this instrumental was used on the Capitol LP “LSD: A Documentary Report,” released in 1966, though I’m not sure how they got it.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOTcY-W1K2Q (start of “part 3”)

It turns out this track is non-Dead. A reader reports that the band here was actually Fire and Ice Ltd., an obscure California "psychedelic" group that provided the backing music for the LSD album, and also released an LP called "The Happening" in 1966. (Hopping on the Pranksters' coattails!)

Pigpen starts out singing & plays some harmonica, but he is drunk and leaves early, to the others’ annoyance. Weir takes over Pigpen’s vocal part.
This and all the early-1966 sessions were recorded by Owsley.

*

EARLY 1966
Demos
Unknown Location (but most likely Owsley’s house in Watts)

Take numbers are approximate. All the takes are instrumental except for one final take of each song with vocals dubbed.

The “Birth of the Dead” CD includes instrumental & vocal takes of Stealin’, Don’t Ease Me In, Tastebud, and Cold Rain, and vocal takes only of You Don’t Have To Ask and I Know You Rider.
Cardboard Cowboy was omitted, though it was included on Lesh's Searching For The Sound bonus disc - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXYWExZ9aE8

Some of the sessions may have been at Coast Recorders, San Francisco. Producer Gene Estribou recalled: “We went down to Western Recording and used their studio for doing some tapes that ended up being on the first 45 from Scorpio.” Blair Jackson suggests that he misidentified Coast Recorders. However, all of our sessions seem to be from his Buena Vista home studio.

See the Taping Compendium p.110-12. (Despite a tracklist on p.125, the outtakes are not reviewed.)

I Know You Rider
Cold Rain & Snow
Cream Puff War (w/ vocal)
Sitting on Top of the World
King Bee [mislabeled as “The Same Thing”]
Down So Long [mislabeled as "Stealin'"]
New Minglewood Blueshttp://archive.org/details/gd1966-12-05.sbd.kimbro.23064.sbeok.shnf
[Mostly instrumentals, except for Cream Puff War. This tape is ridiculously sped-up. Down So Long was known as "Lucky Man Jam" on tapes.]

/Cryptical > Other One > Cryptical Alligator > Cautionhttp://archive.org/details/gd1967-xx-xx.sbd.studio.81259.flac16
I was mistaken about this being a studio session; I now believe it's from an October '67 live show.
[Vocals mostly low, but come up in spots. These tracks are the same as on the Archive’s “10-20-67” session, which is in inferior sound & has an edit of the 1/14/67 Viola Lee Blues. This set also has a Lovelight from the earlier session, and an edit of the 11/19/66 Smokestack Lightning.]

See the Taping Compendium p.147.
According to the Anthem CD liner notes, “There don’t appear to be any completed outtakes from the sessions – most of what’s still in the vaults consists of instrumental backing tracks and separate vocal overdubs.”

*

NOVEMBER 14, 1967
Anthem of the Sun Sessions
American Recording Studios, North Hollywood

Clementine Jamhttp://www.dead.net/features/tapers-section/september-17-september-23-2007-0
This seems to have been a Hartbeats-type jam session; Lemieux writes that the players were Garcia, Lesh, Hart, and two guitarists listed as “David and Vic” - David Crosby and Vic Briggs.
Lemieux writes that there was another Jam, but unfortunately it was not included on the Taper’s Section!

OCTOBER 1968 – EARLY 1969
Aoxomoxoa Sessions
Pacific Recording Studio, San Mateo (& possibly some tracks from Pacific High Recording, San Francisco)

St. Stephen >
The Eleven
Barbed Wire Whipping Party
Doin’ That Rag
Dupree’s Diamond Blues
Instrumental (Garcia & drums)
China Cat Sunflower
Cosmic Charlie
Doin’ That Rag #2
Mountains of the Moon
What’s Become of the Baby
Rosemary
Mountains of the Moon #2http://archive.org/details/gd69-xx-xx.sbd.dodd.16760.sbeok.shnf (see the review from 9/22/10 for a summary of the tracks)

These are mostly basic tracks without overdubs, many thought to be from the 8-track recording sessions in late 1968. A couple may be alternate mixes; the first three tracks were abandoned, and St. Stephen redone.

Candyman is a radically different alternate mix with more guitars, no lead vocal, and a longer ending. Truckin' is an alternate mix of the released version with more lead guitar, and a bit of Frozen Logger after the fadeout. Ripple has the album vocals over a somewhat alternate basic track. To Lay Me Down was dropped by the Dead; Garcia would later do it for his solo album.

(Sunshine 1 - a basic take with Garcia vocal; Sunshine 2 - an instrumental jam from the same session or take; Sunshine 3-4 - two mixes of the album version. Let Me Sing 1 - an alternate “live” take; Let Me Sing 2 - a mix of the album version. Let It Grow, Row Jimmy & Eyes - basic vocal takes without all the overdubs. WRS prelude/part 1 - three mixes of the album version, the first two stopping early. Stella Blue - two mixes of the album version.)

(The first three tracks sound like a single rehearsal session, all “live” takes with vocals: three takes of Cucamonga, one of Money, and a false start & take of Unbroken Chain. Then Phil’s acoustic demo of Unbroken Chain, same as the CD bonus track. The remaining tracks are all basic instrumental takes without overdubs: Unbroken Chain, Scarlet Begonias, Cucamonga, Ship of Fools, Money, Loose Lucy & US Blues. These are frequently different from the album takes – for instance note Garcia’s guitar parts in Cucamonga & Unbroken Chain.)

The Dead attended this Pranksters recording session, but if they played any music, it wasn’t included. Last track: “Let the Dead sing some.” Garcia replies, “My voice is completely shot, Ken, I can’t even hold it, can’t keep a pitched note.” And there it ends; no musical involvement.

Not on the Archive. Weir on guitar; Garcia on pedal steel; John Cipollina on guitar; Pete Sears or Bill Champlin on piano. Supposedly broadcast live on KSAN sometime in 1970. It could be a radio broadcast; Weir seems to be playing for an audience.

This set also includes several amusing radio promos, which are a separate genre of “Dead-on-the-radio” advertising that still haven’t been adequately collected. The Taping Compendium p.214 lists a number of them.

*

DEC 1970-JAN 1971
PERRO Sessions
Wally Heider’s Studio, San Francisco

Garcia, Lesh, Hart and Kreutzmann all participated in these sessions, which generally featured David Crosby and/or various Airplane members. There’s too much to go into here, but for notes & annotations, see: http://www.philzone.com/philbase/perro.html
Also see the Taping Compendium, p.289-90 & 296-98.

No Dead songs were played, except for an early runthrough of Loser with viola, in which Garcia is teaching the song to Crosby & Lesh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKlImjF1Hec
Not on the Archive, but the rest of the PERRO sessions can also easily be found on youtube and elsewhere.

Tracks marked * or + appear on the respective compilations, which cover all the dates in sometimes very different sound; as far as I know every track on tape is on the Archive. (For instance, there’s no specific Archive file for the 9/28 rehearsal, but all the tracks are included on the compilations.) Sound quality differs greatly between sources; Keith’s presence also varies.

"C Shuffle" (Walk in the Sunshine) - 2 takes; the second has Weir vocalizing the melody.
Unknown song - 2 takes; Weir vocalizes a melody in the second take. This tune was apparently abandoned.
Cassidy - 2 takes; again, the second take has a vocal melody, but no words yet.
Black Throated Wind - Weir sings the first verse, then stops.
"Madrigal" (Weather Report Prelude)
Jack Straw

The demos are all just Weir on an
acoustic guitar; it sounds like Barlow is taping him. The early takes are instrumental - the purpose was probably to help
Barlow write lyrics for the songs.

Some outtakes from Tarot’s Touchstone album are included in the above set. They have a classical feel, with TC-like keyboards, acoustic & electric guitars, flute, and a string section. There’s also one long experimental collage with strings that sounds just like a Constanten creation. (Four more instrumentals purported to be “Tarot music” outtakes are also circulating; these are in a very different style, with acoustic guitar, pedal steel, piano & violin, and don’t sound like the same musicians.) Supposedly, Garcia, Lesh & Hart appear on some of the outtakes.
I don’t think Garcia or the others were involved at all; as far as Dead involvement goes these are fakes, since they’re just Constanten & unknown musicians playing his compositions, and possibly aren’t even related to Tarot.

Among the many projects going on at Mickey Hart’s barn studio during his “Dead hiatus” were several unreleased albums. Garcia & Lesh sometimes contributed, along with many other musicians. I won’t go into the details here, but the most well-known track from these sessions is undoubtedly Mickey’s version of Fire on the Mountain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0jt-2huWAg

About an hour of Pigpen’s home recordings circulate. Their date is completely unknown; reviews in the Taping Compendium, for instance, are on p.125, 298-99, & 449-50. Many of the songs described, though, are still not available digitally – clearly more demos used to be on tape that haven't been transferred yet.
The most common available session is this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbgVApI1lHk

To put it another way, the Scorpio sessions we collectors have on tape all come from producer Gene Estribou's home studio. If he used another studio for the single, I'm not sure if it was for dubbing, mixing, better equipment or what.

The Anthem studio sessions are particularly tangled, with the Dead recording & mixing in several studios in CA, NY and FL over several months. Fortunately here I only had to concern myself with the few outtakes we have, which are near the start of the sessions so they're easier to place. It's likely our "11/14/67" tracks might have dubs from a later date, though, particularly Born Cross-Eyed.

Lossless Legs links could be provided for everything here, but in general I eschew them since torrent sites are not as universally available as Archive streams. Anyone on that site can readily find them, though.

fwiw, there is what appears to be another mix of Barbed Wire Whipping Party on here:http://archive.org/details/gd88-06-01.sbd.munder.20606.sbeok.shnf

some of the voices that are buried in the background from the Troy reel version are way out front here, i am able to understand what they are saying for the first time... also it starts with more growling type sounds, and less jumbled conversation, and ends without the long sustained note. total time is about 1 min different.

A cleaner version of the Barbed Wire Whipping Party mix #2 (the short 1:20 mix) is tagged onto the end of the 9/17/69 tape - for the Barbed Wire aficionados who want the best quality! https://archive.org/details/gd1969-09-17.136664.sbd.Sirmick.flac16

I was the source for the Tarot sessions including Garcia, Lesh, Hart, and Richard Greene. Taped off of KSAN in 1970, when TC visited their studios. He was the one who rattled off the names of the players, although I did not record his interview. What circulates now includes some other tracks of questionable provenance that may have included Touchstone, the group with which TC recorded the Tarot album.

TC himself said so? Hmm... It's also surprising to get a confirmed date of 1970, earlier than I expected.I wish there were a tape of that interview, and one that included just the tracks aired on KSAN - our "Tarot outtakes" do seem to be a jumble of different things.

I'm late to commenting on this, but it's an indispensable list. For me personally, many of these tracks came as "filler" on various cassettes, so although I had heard them, I never could be certain where they came from. It's great to see them all on one list.

Completely fascinating to find out about the strange back history of the circulation of the TC/Tarot recordings. I agree that the entire subject is murky, but of course, all the more intriguing for that.

Q: Have you guys ever made an album you wouldn't dare release for some stylistic reason? GARCIA: There are certain cuts, like "Barbed Wire Whipping Party," which is out anyway among the fans. I don't know where they got it from, but it's out on the streets. It's not exactly a song, it's more a lunatic babble riff. In fact, it's not music at all. WEIR: Boy, that's bad news. People are actually listening to that? Don't play that for your children! It's more of a performance poetry piece of some kind. But I don't know what kind. GARCIA: Mickey has done a lot of things of the kind you mean. He's done a telephone album. He's done a bug album that's hilarious; it's got all these songs about insects, the war on insects. WEIR: He had big plans for that one! [convulsive mutual laughter] GARCIA: Mostly, we're always out on the road working, because we earn our living by playing. So we haven't had much of the luxury where you just go into the studio for no particular reason to screw around. WEIR: There's tape somewhere of Mickey playing someone's head! And between rehearsal takes we have 15 or 20 versions on tape of "The Mexican Hat Dance" and "The Frozen Logger."

Researcher Michael Sheflin writes of the supposed 1965 track "Speed Limit" used on the "LSD: A Documentary Report" record: "I spoke with Lawrence Schiller, who made the original record that sampled this tape. The group was called Fire and Ice, from LA."

This is apparently the same Fire and Ice Ltd. known for the 1966 "psychedelic" record "The Happening" (also on Capitol Records) - http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x11v4i6_fire-ice-ltd-the-happening-1966-us-experimental-psych_music (The band description is a hoot.)They're thought to be the same group that did the backing music for the LSD album.

Ian Whitcomb wrote of a mid-'66 visit to Capitol Records in his book "Rock Odyssey: A Chronicle of the Sixties": "The sales people are very excited about the number of units sold of their LSD documentary album. Is this exploitation or documentation? The backing music is provided by Fire and Ice, Ltd., who claim to be from San Francisco but I'd guess that San Fernando Valley is nearer the mark. The leader is a flautist who says in his press release that he was born at age zero and is a painter-singer-dancer-poet-and-whatever, famous for spontaneous recitations in Bay Area coffeehouses... The old reliable KLRA beat is very skeptical and their reporter Carol Deck writes that 'You can't whistle it in the shower.' However, she has to admit that this LSD music is where pop is going." (p.269)

The "Fuzz Acid & Flowers" guide writes of Fire & Ice's "Happening" LP: "Chaotic off-the-wall instrumentals accompanied by shouted exhortations, or rambling spoken nonsense, characterize this strange trip. An early attempt at a free-form freak-out... Definitely do not listen to it sober, as it just sounds vacuous... There was a Fire and Ice who provided backing music to Capitol's notorious LSD documentary album...and this is thought to have involved [bandmember] John Greek too."

Sometime in the fall of 1971, Bob Weir made a tape of acoustic demos for Ace, which I think David Gans played on one of the KPFA marathons years ago. The early takes are instrumental - the purpose was probably to help Barlow write lyrics for the songs. The demos are all just Weir on an acoustic guitar; it sounds like Barlow is taping him.The tape has: "C Shuffle" (Walk in the Sunshine) - 2 takes; the second has Weir vocalizing the melody.unknown song - 2 takes; Weir vocalizes a melody in the second take. This tune was apparently abandoned.Cassidy - 2 takes; again, the second take has a vocal melody, but no words yet.Black Throated Wind - Weir sings the first verse, then stops."Madrigal" (Weather Report Prelude) Jack Straw - At Barlow's request, Weir sings the whole song (which he'd written with Hunter that summer, and was already being played by the Dead).

Several other songs on Ace had been played by the Dead in 1971; the one new song not on this demo tape is Looks Like Rain, so perhaps it was written later.

A new studio outtake has surfaced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3x_Vh10HPI A few takes of Seasons of My Heart from September 1969, with Constanten on organ & Garcia on pedal steel. Weir, Lesh & Garcia practice the harmony vocals.

- a short rehearsal at Bear's house in LA, February 1966: /Hi Heel Sneakers, Viola Lee Blues. - a studio rehearsal, thought to be from 9/12/68 Pacific Recording: Clementine (extensive takes) with TC(?) on organ, a guest guitarist & Phil on vocals, and then a wild jam. One of the most interesting and revelatory studio tapes by far.

Some more early-'66 rehearsals have surfaced, listed in the "1966 Songs" post:

1/66 - the full Viola Lee Blues tape ends with a Cardboard Cowboy rehearsal 1/66 - "Wandering Man," a lost Phil song 3/9/66 - an unknown Pigpen R&B original; Who Do You Love; weird modal jam. 3/10/66 - Sittin' on Top of the World (several takes)

And a couple 1969 rehearsals have also appeared, which should be noted here:

1/23/69 Avalon - the Eleven, Doin' That Rag (and an instrumental Rag jam), Cosmic Charlie, Dupree's Diamond Blues, Born Cross-Eyed (the only 1969 version!), and an Other One>Cryptical that goes over 20 minutes before cutting off. Not as intense as a live show, but some nice jams in this one, and the first known performances of some of the Aoxomoxoa songs. I imagine preparing for the 16-track recording for Live/Dead at the Avalon prompted this long soundcheck/practice. (The band, as always, complain to Bear about not being able to hear their monitors.) Phil teases Dark Star at the end of the Eleven, but sadly they don't play it. They don't fully remember Born Cross-Eyed, but it's still a treat to hear a '69 performance. A couple selections were released on Download Series 12.

9/17/69 Alembic studio/rehearsal space - a dull blues instrumental (most likely a cover of something), multiple takes of Seasons of My Heart and Sawmill with pedal steel (these were released on youtube last year), a few takes of Cold Rain & Snow (they're still working out the slow version), Dire Wolf, 20 minutes of the Eleven (they try out a new part, without much success), and almost a half hour of jams on the Merry-Go-Round, the Merry Melodies theme, and other carnival & cartoon tunes (sometimes all at once, a la Ives), with pedal steel & organ. The Dead crack up talking about playing these on stage...